


Peace and Pieces

by peoriapeoria



Series: Bucky's Luck [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fatherhood, Gen, Loss, Peace, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-25
Updated: 2013-01-25
Packaged: 2017-11-26 21:18:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/654511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky came back but Steve wasn't so lucky. Howard's war is still raging cold.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peace and Pieces

It had come as a shock, when the wedding invitation arrived. Bucky and Howard weren't friends, though he supposed Howard and Peggy were. Stark's flirting had become a set piece ages ago, a magic trick that fooled some that Howard hadn't changed. Bucky thought he might know why there was a darkness to him now, but that was supposition. The war had changed a lot of people. He'd married after all, was a family man.

Except Bucky's family was just about out of the nest and now Howard was getting married. The bride was a pretty little slip and according to Peggy sharper than a whole box of tacks. Physics. She didn't look like a rocket scientist. He knew that could be deceptive.

The reception was lavish. Stark Industries was big in military hardware. There were no jet cars. The consumer products were but a tail wagged by weapon systems. "How old is she?"

"Twenty-three. Barnes." Peggy called him that when she thought he was about to do something dumb. She very rarely called him Bucky, and that was a mercy. Howard has called him Dorian. He's not aging at anything like a normal rate. He claims clean living.

Their eldest was well more than twenty-three. The last bit of Steve they, Peggy and he had. "Okay."

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Howard." Bucky didn't raise his voice. He was that angry. "You've got to stop. Steve wouldn't want this." He'd had to wait for Stark to get back from his expedition. "Tony needs you." The boy was smart. Razor-wire sharp. "Steve is gone."

Bucky wanted that not to be true. But Steve had gone down in Schmidt's aerial warship decades ago. He wasn't going to be found, not after everything Stark had put into his expeditions. Some weapons were too-- It hurt to think of Steve that way. No, if Steve were here, they'd figure it out. But since he wasn't Bucky had to make Howard see sense.

"Spend time with him. Play with his robots. Be Tony's father." He left unsaid "Do what Steve couldn't." Bucky thought he'd done a good job.

"Or what?"

"Tony will be just like you." Even Howard couldn't be drunk enough to not think that damning. Bucky stepped out, closing the door softly.


End file.
